Demos-Nothing-To-Fear-But-Fear-Itself

Context and background

Context and background major dividing line in politics, with others schisms – such as young vs old, educated vs uneducated, open vs closed (or in Le Pen’s words, ‘globalists’ vs ‘patriots’) – becoming increasingly significant. That said, there have also been major gains for anti-establishment, populist parties from a more resolutely left-wing position, including Podemos in Spain, and most notably Syriza in Greece. ‘Populist’ is therefore an all-embracing term that brings together very different political entities. However, while the term ‘populism’ is not without its conceptual problems, populist parties at the very broadest level tend to have a similar worldview, one defined by prominent political scientist Cas Mudde as: an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people. 3 For left-wing populist parties, this concept of ‘the people’ may be framed particularly to exclude financial elites, using language such as the ‘99 per cent’. For right-wing populist parties, ‘the people’ is typically bound to the idea of the nation, which may exclude non-elite groups such as welfare recipients, immigrants and ethnic and religious minorities (albeit often constructed as receiving underserved support from elites). 4 In both cases, however, growing populist support reflects a deep distrust in, or a rejection of, the current political system, which represents a substantial challenge to mainstream parties. Public policy Anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic rhetoric is exerting an influence on policy across Europe. In some cases this is the result of populist parties in government. For example, once in power the Law and Justice party reversed the previous government’s pledge to accept 7,000 refugees, citing concerns around terrorism and disease; Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused

21 refugees of ‘bringing in all kinds of parasites’. 5 In June 2016, Poland also passed new anti-terrorism laws introducing measures such as the wiretapping of foreign citizens without a court order. Critics argue that these laws are inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights. Some commentators have argued that this combination of anti-immigrant and authoritarian policy change seen in Poland reflects the Law and Justice party ‘learning from the Hungarians’ in their approach. 6 Since regaining the premiership in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been criticised for cracking down on media freedom and political accountability, as well as exploiting terrorist attacks in Europe to spread fear and promote Islamophobia and a narrow, ethnic nationalism. The policy agendas of both governments have brought them into open conflict with the EU – Hungary for its treatment of migrants, and Poland for changes to the country’s constitutional court and state media – which have led to threats to sanction these countries under Article 7 for violating fundamental EU rights. Even where populist parties have not formed governments, the politics of fear has asserted its influence on policy through restrictions on welfare and social security provision, driven in part by financial constraints, but also a more politicised weakening of social bonds and solidarity. A number of states have recently attempted to tighten eligibility rules for immigrants. This was at the forefront of David Cameron’s EU renegotiation (a now largely academic exercise), which included an ‘emergency brake’ on in-work benefits for EU migrants. Welfare chauvinism towards migrants is part of a wider and much longer-running trend towards tightening eligibility and reduced generosity in many countries’ welfare regimes, however. Austerity policies, largely implemented by establishment parties in the wake of the financial crisis, have led to significant falls in welfare spending in many countries. According to the OECD’s social expenditure index, spending to gross domestic product (GDP) ratios declined between 2009 and 2014 by 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points in Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland and the UK. 7 In Greece, the impact